What are “credentials” and why are they delaying the ANC Elective Conference 2017?

The ANC Elective Conference started seven hours late on Saturday and it is still being delayed by some dodgy credentials. We explain what's going on...

Alright, so by now, if you’ve followed the 2017 ANC Elective Conference in any shape or form, then you will know that it hasn’t gone smoothly. It’s worse than that actually, it hasn’t really gone anywhere at all due to delays before and after a mammoth Jacob Zuma report back. So what is causing those delays? Well, it all comes down to credentials.

What are the ANC credentials for a National Elective Conference?

Elective conferences like this mean ANC branches from across the country travel into the Nasrec Centre in Joburg. In short, that means there are thousands of ANC members trying to get into the venue.

With ANC provincial structures being taken to court continuously over the last few months, certain members and branches have been deemed illegitimate by the courts. The ANC has had to take that into account, hence the delay on Saturday as they figured out how to handle the court judgements. Eventually, it was decided that they would stand with the court and accept the rulings.

The decision was deemed a blow to the Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma camp as most of the barred structures were set to back her for the presidency.

With the ANC leadership desperate to avoid more court action, they are prepared to take all the time they need to make it official. The main plenary session cannot begin inside the conference until the ANC knows everyone there is supposed to be there, especially with Presidential voting set to take place late on Sunday.

There have been reports of “bogus” delegates registering or attempting to register to get inside the conference. Not just one or two, but reports of up to 300 or more. Other ANC members have said that trickery has been used as certain factions try and block registration and even steal other members’ identity. There have even been some reports of dead ANC members names being submitted by provinces.

ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe and his team have been working through Saturday night in order to “clean” the list of credentials. The conference was supposed to continue on Sunday morning at 9AM but STILL the credentials have not been sorted.

The longer we wait, the more “legitimate” the outcomes of this conference will hopefully be. Don’t be that surprised, though, if voting only gets underway on Monday…